| THESE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT: School of Rock students can already feel the noise
By Staci Sturrock | Music | March 13, 2011
School of Rock students Ben Rothschild, 11, and Lexie Ayres, 14, are joined by the school's musical director, Justin Hucker, on stage at B.B. King's Blues Club in West Palm Beach. (J. Gwendolynne Berry / Palm Beach Post)
Marcus Giordano is stalking the B.B. King’s Blues Club stage, completely in command of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army and the CityPlace crowd.
He works the room like a rock ‘n’ roll veteran who’s been performing half his life – which, in his case, is true.
Of course, he’s only 7 years old.
Welcome to Rock 101, a class at the School of Rock, the North Palm Beach musical academy where about 90 students are learning the musical chops and stage skills to be your next Jack Whites and Mick Jaggers.
Instead of sitting in stuffy classrooms, they get to strap on their instruments, bash away at the Troggs’ Wild Thing and play showcases at area clubs and parks.
Cool.
On this particular Saturday afternoon at B.B. King’s, Rock 101 is the opening act for a soul and Motown showcase starring the school’s more accomplished performers (all of whom are under the age of 18).
Red and blue lights sweep across the stage while musicians who can’t legally order a drink at the bar perform Super Freak, In the Midnight Hour and The Thrill Is Gone. On most numbers, the kids are better than all right.
"These are not recitals," said Rick Rothschild, a 47-year-old copier wholesaler who owns School of Rock with 45-year-old child psychologist Chris Paige. "We’re doing rock ‘n’ roll shows."
Opened in North Palm Beach in June 2008, the school cranks up the volume on what can sometimes be a solitary, even lonely, experience – student, instructor, instrument.
Kids meet after school and on weekends for ear-splitting rehearsals of upcoming shows. Currently, they’re tweaking Aerosmith and Incubus set lists.
Zoe Zeeman, 16, grins as she practices at the School of Rock studio in North Palm Beach. (Bruce R. Bennett / Palm Beach Post)
Performing in front of a large audience was nerve-wracking at first, but now she enjoys it, says Zoe Zeeman, 16, a Dreyfoos School of the Arts student from West Palm Beach who recently sang and played guitar and keyboard during a Rolling Stones show at O’Shea’s in West Palm Beach.
"She’s used to it," says her best friend, Caitlin Trezise, 15, a Dreyfoos student who lives in Riviera Beach. "I’m mildly terrified."
The spotlight, however, fits Jacob Mooallem like a gold lamé suit. The bookish-looking 12-year-old communications major at Bak Middle School of the Arts may be the physical antithesis of a frontman, but he’s got more than enough presence to handle Break on Through or Brown Sugar.
He’d taken a year of piano before enrolling at School of Rock, but now he also plays guitar and drums. "They all have so much to do with each other," says Mooallem, who lives in West Palm Beach. "Once you learn one, you need to learn the others just to satisfy your hunger."
Max Haddad, 9, plays Tom Petty's 'You Wreck Me' at B.B. King's. (J. Gwendolynne Berry / Palm Beach Post)
Lessons, jam sessions, rehearsal space
Rothschild and Paige say they opened the school, one of 58 Schools of Rock in 23 states, because they share a passion for music and mentoring young people.
School of Rock was born in Philadelphia in 1998. The original school was profiled in a 2005 documentary, Rock School, and also served as the model for the 2003 Jack Black comedy, School of Rock.
The staff at the North Palm Beach location includes more than a dozen instructors who currently teach 110 lessons a week.
For $295 a month, a student gets a 45-minute, one-on-one lesson every week, plus a weekly three-hour jam session, as well as the use of the rehearsal rooms whenever the school is open.
"You’re paying more, but you have other kids to play with who are here all the time," Rothschild says.
"You learn how to play when you play with other people. And obviously the payoff is at the end when they get to perform."
Mooallem says School of Rock has taught him a lot about life. "It teaches you to work with other people in a collaborative effort, and to work hard at something and see the end result, and be proud of the end result. And that’s something I’m definitely going to use in life."
School of Rock also serves a larger purpose. "It’s not easy being a 14-year-old kid these days," said Rothschild. "Some of these kids don’t necessarily fit in elsewhere, but here, they’re rock stars."
‘Eccentricity is a very good thing’
Justin Hucker, 26, the school’s music director, estimates that 20 percent of his students are there to perfect their musicianship. For many of the others, the school in the Shoppes of Oakbrook gives them an after-school destination where they feel welcome.
"Most musicians are just awkward, weird people by nature," Hucker said. "They’re a little quirky. For kids who don’t play sports, it’s a great thing for them. The weirder the better around here. Eccentricity is a very good thing."
School of Rock also offers music lessons to adults. Last month, the grown-ups played their own show at Swampgrass Willy’s in Palm Beach Gardens.
"We have adults who want to show their kids, ‘Hey, I can do this, too,’" says Rothschild, whose son Ben, 11, and daughter Sydney, 7, attend the school.
Says co-owner Paige, "There’s something really cool about kids playing our music and enjoying it."
Lisa Civin’s 14-year-old son Shaun, who lives in West Palm Beach and attends Meyer Academy, played guitar in the school’s recent shows devoted to progressive rock and Black Sabbath.
Shaun had taken music lessons prior to School of Rock, "but after a year, he just didn’t want to do it anymore. Whereas here, there’s a purpose."
Shaun used to be shy until he began performing, said his mother. "Now he gets on stage in front of hundreds. The more people, the happier he is."
The same can be said of Marcus Giordano and 9-year-old brother Enzo, both of whom now relish every opportunity to perform, says their mom, Marilia.
She and her husband, Vinnie, who live in North Palm Beach, are both taking drum lessons at School of Rock, and Marilia recently played drums on Twist and Shout, Ball and Biscuit and Pump It Up during the adults’ show.
The next time the parents play, many of them will be joined on stage by their musician children.
"That’s pretty much why I wanted to take lessons," Marilia says.
"I kept thinking, ‘Man, one day I’ll be able to play with them.’"
Now, the whole Giordano family is a family of rock stars.
"Far from it," Marilia says. "But we have fun." |
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